Insert one of Ireland’s most loved bands, The Coronas. Together, members Danny O’Reilly (son of world renowned Irish folk singer Mary Black), Conor Egan, Graham Knox and Dave McPhillips, have spent a decade touring across the world, racking up quite an impressive career. The multi-platinum selling band has performed to sold-out crowds around the world including their largest headline/sold-out show to date – at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin in which they performed to an audience of 15,000 last year – has garnered multiple number one singles on the Irish music charts and has released five critically-acclaimed studio albums. They earned their first ever number one album on the Irish music charts with Trust the Wire; the album jumped to the top within in its first week of release last June, beating out Ed Sheeran.
Their music is often described as combinations of Indie-Folk, Pop and Rock, but lead singer Danny O’Reilly says they just try to “write good songs that people can relate to. Even though sonically we’ve evolved a bit over the years, a good song is always our ambition.”
Although they are seasoned performers, The Coronas are new to the U.S. Irish and Celtic festival circuit. They’ll make their debut at Milwaukee Irish Fest this August for three nights – August 17, 18 and 19. O’Reilly promises they’ll put on their best show, adding that, “we love playing venues of all sizes; as long as the room (or arena) is full, there’ll always be an atmosphere no matter how big or small the crowd is.” When asked what festival attendees can expect from their Milwaukee (and Wisconsin) debut, O’Reilly stated, “we’re passionate, we love what we do, we try to get the crowd to sing along and join the show. Above all, we appreciate what we do every night, never take it for granted and that attitude seems to help get the crowd enjoying themselves, too.”
With 2018 marking their biggest North American tour to date, their goal is to continue in growing their audiences and becoming more recognizable outside of Ireland. With singles from their latest album, “Real Feel” and “We Couldn’t Fake It” making inroads across U.S. radio stations for the first time, The Coronas’ music is starting to spread and gain traction. “We’ve been coming to the States a lot more over the past 12 months. We’ve been lucky enough to get a lot of radio support from WBSD in the area [Burlington, WI], which has been playing different songs from the album, so we’re looking forward to playing for people who’ve heard us before, but have yet to see us live” said O’Reilly. “We plan to keep coming back and building it like we did at home. It was never an overnight success there, so we’re excited to emulate that overseas.”
The Coronas also plan to roll out some new music throughout the summer, to coincide with their tour. Two have already been released: “Is There Still Time?” and “Not Sure How to Lie” both of which can be found on Spotify and iTunes.
While one might wonder whether their band name was inspired by the Mexican beer, it was actually inspired by their favorite movie, Almost Famous. The brand of typewriter the main character used was a Smith-Corona.
Some other remarkable tidbits about The Coronas are: they supported The Script on a European tour, opened for Paul McCartney at the RDS Arena in Dublin and supported Justin Timberlake at Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
The Coronas will perform at Milwaukee Irish Fest’s Leinie’s stage, located on the North end of the festival grounds during the following days and times:
Friday August 17 8:00 pm Leinie’s Stage
Saturday August 18 6:00 pm Leinie’s Stage
Sunday, August 19 3:15 pm Leinie’s Stage